1850s By the turn of the century,
this was the world's largest producer of rye whiskey. Also known as Moore &
Sinnott, By 1923 Gibson was
completely destroyed by Prohibition, from which it never recovered.

1880s The Joseph Mathias &
Co. distillery (Fry & Mathias) produced fine rye whiskey for sale to
wholesalers and merchants. They also produced brands of their own,
"Old Westmoreland" and "Old Manor". Long after the distillery was forced
closed by prohibition, "Old Westmoreland" was being marketed by Ruffsdale
Distillery.

1880s One of American whiskey's real
tragedies. Once western Pennsylvania's prestige luxury brand, "Good Old
Guckenheimer" was an award-winning superstar prior to Prohibition.
Afterward, it's new owners chose to feature brands that were cheaper to
produce, while continuing to exploit the Guckenheimer name and reputation
until it no longer had any.

Before and after Prohibition Many of those barrels Schenley once owned were
filled with rye whiskey produced at this distillery, located in a tiny
hamlet in Westmoreland county. Their own stable of brands survived well
into the 1960s.

Greensburg Distilling made rye whiskey until
Prohibition at a building along South Main Street. It was too dark
and rainy and late the first time we visited this area. The next time we saw
it was in 2004 with Sam Komlenic. The site, at the foot of Green Street,
is now the offices of the Westmoreland County Blind Association, with an
industrial fuel & solvent company in the back. What had probably been the
mill creek now flows across the property in a concrete trough, and there
is an old, three-story brick building way in the back that might once have
been a whiskey warehouse. Otherwise, there is no longer any trace of this
distillery.

And coming soon to a computer
screen near you!

Baker

Jefferson Twp, Somerset County

Baker whiskey, which achieved some fame, was made by Henry Baker in Jefferson
Township, Somerset County, who built a large distillery sometime after 1813.
This would be about as far east as Monongahela whiskey would go. After that
you've got only mountains.

Gray

German Twp and Greensburg

Sylanus Gray's was the only distillery left in Fayette's German Township
in the 1880s, making 105,000 gallons a year. Another Gray's distillery earlier
was in Greene County, north of Greensburg. We'd like to find where they were.

New Adventures and Topics
Coming up!

A Different Kind of Whiskey:
Riding the Cumberland Trail into Tennessee Whiskey
History